1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hot strip coiler furnace comprising a furnace hood, a drivable coiler drum, which is accommodated in the furnace hood and has a strip-receiving opening for receiving the leading end of the incoming strip, and a strip-receiving guide, which has a delivery end adjacent to the strip-receiving opening of the coiler drum when it is in a strip-receiving position, wherein the coiler drum is adapted to be driven to rotate in a sense corresponding to the direction in which the leading end of the strip is inserted into the strip-receiving opening and is adjustable in dependence on the diameter of the coil of strip along a coiler drum guide, which is transverse to the longitudinal and transverse directions of the incoming strip.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When strip is hot-rolled by means of a reversing stand, said stand is preceded and succeeded by respective coiler furnaces so that the strip can be uncoiled from one coiler furnace and rolled in the reversing stand and then coiled in the other coiler furnace. For that purpose it is conventional to provide coiler furnaces which as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,983 comprise a heat-insulated furnace hood and a coiler drum, which is accommodated in the furnace hood and has a strip-receiving opening for receiving the leading end of the incoming strip, which is supplied on a roller table and is guided into the furnace along a strip-receiving guide, which is generally constituted by a pivoted flap. The leading end of the incoming strip is inserted along the strip-receiving guide into the receiving opening of the coiler drum, which for that purpose must be rotated to a strip-receiving position. To clamp the leading end of the strip in the strip-receiving opening of the coiler drum, the coiler drum is driven to rotate in a sense which is opposite to the direction in which the incoming strip is moved so that the leading end of the incoming strip is bent around that edge of the strip-receiving opening which is the trailing edge in the coiling sense. The contact between the strip and the shell of the coiler drum is assisted by pressure-applying rollers, which are rotatably mounted in a rocker and which by a cylinder that acts on the rocker are forced against the coiler drum and the convolutions of the strip surrounding the coiler drum. After the first convolutions of the strip have been formed the pressure-applying rollers are disengaged from the coil of strip. A disadvantage of that known coiler furnace resides in that the incoming strip is displaced transversely to its longitudinal and transverse directions in dependence on the increase of the diameter of the coil of strip and is thus caused to vibrate and that vibration has an adverse effect on the quality of the strip and may give rise to difficulties in the driving of the coiler drum because the vibration must be suppressed by a higher strip tension. Besides, it is not possible to pull the hot strip completely into the coiler furnace so that that end of the strip which does not enter the coiler furnace is undesirably cooled.
It is also known (from DE-A-948-603 and DE-A-938,379) to drive the coiler drum in the sense corresponding to the direction of movement of the leading end of the strip into the strip-receiving opening and to adjust the coiler drum in dependence on the diameter of the coil of strip along a guide which is transverse to the longitudinal and transverse directions of the incoming strip. As a result, the transverse displacement of the incoming strip can be restricted. A disadvantage of that known coiler furnace resides also in that the hot strip cannot completely be coiled on the coiler drum because it would otherwise be impossible to pull the strip from the coiler drum so that in case of a standstill of the rolling mill plant the strip which cannot completely be introduced into the coiler furnace must be rejected as a scrap.